SCOOP » Newshttp://i-scoop.org/scoop
Supporting Investigative JournalismSat, 19 Mar 2016 16:31:48 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1Slander Against Serbian Investigative Journalistshttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/03/19/slander-against-serbian-investigative-journalists/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/03/19/slander-against-serbian-investigative-journalists/#commentsSat, 19 Mar 2016 16:28:54 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9604Our Balkan colleagues in KRIK and OCCRP are being accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government of Serbia.The allegations are made in the government-friendly tabloid Informer, which disturbingly seems to have access to information from state intelligence or law enforcement.

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/03/19/slander-against-serbian-investigative-journalists/feed/0Growing Interest for Investigative Journalism in Russiahttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/02/20/growing-interest-for-investigative-journalism-in-russia/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/02/20/growing-interest-for-investigative-journalism-in-russia/#commentsSat, 20 Feb 2016 21:16:25 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9584A record number of journalists have applied for a working grant from SCOOP Russia. In spite of the severely increased pressure on media and journalists in Russia, the willingness to conduct Investigative Journalism is growing in North West Russia. When the deadline for applications to SCOOP Russia expired, the number of applications to get support from the programme had increased by 42 per cent compared to the year before. 61 journalists have applied – the highest number ever.

SCOOP coordinator for St. Petersburg Anton Sotnitchuk introduces the program at the seminar in the offices of the Regional press Institute in St. Petersburg

Some applicants had taken part in the programme before. But the most significant change is that the first time appliers increased with 58 per cent.

– This is very satisfying. It shows that more and more journalists in North West Russia are willing to make proper investigations and present them to their local audience, says Börge Nilsson from the Swedish Society of Investigative Journalism, FGJ, who is the Project Coordinator for Scoop Russia.

Scoop Russia is a peer-to-peer project initiated by the Danish society of Investigative Journalism, FUJ, and run by the Danish and Swedish organisations in cooperation with International Media Support in Copenhagen, the Regional Press Institute in Saint Petersburg and the Swedish press Institute FOJO in Kalmar. FOJO organizes a weeklong education in journalistic investigations for all first-time participants in the programme.

The project is financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida.

During the last weeks of February the applications will be evaluated. The selection for the four regions is made by four coordinator pairs of Russian and Scandinavian journalists.

– But keep in mind that Scandinavian journalists are not telling their Russian colleagues what to investigate. All subjects are entirely chosen by the local journalists applying for support with themes they find important for their readers, listeners and viewers. We just help by educating in how to do it, says Project Coordinator Börge Nilsson.

Scoop Russia also pays costs necessary for the investigation, such as analyses in laboratories or travel costs, plus a small fee.

Many journalists turned up in Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic to hear about the possibilities for support from SCOOP.

The range of media goes from very small newsrooms in the countryside to media in the second biggest city in Russia, Saint Petersburg.

During January and the beginning of February, SCOOP Russia’s Russian partner organization Regional Press Institute in Saint Petersburg in cooperation with the regional SCOOP coordinators, held a number of seminars in different regions. The seminars were well visited and very successful.

– This year we are very happy to see more applications than ever from cities up north, such as Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Syktyvkar in Komi Republic. We also see a growing number of first-time applications from Kaliningrad where we already have a number of experienced journalists who has participated in our project for a number of years, Project Coordinator Börge Nilsson says.

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/02/20/growing-interest-for-investigative-journalism-in-russia/feed/0Invitation to SCOOP seminarshttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/01/22/invitation-to-scoop-seminars/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/01/22/invitation-to-scoop-seminars/#commentsFri, 22 Jan 2016 09:28:38 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9466Are you a journalist and do you want to dig deeper? SCOOP invites you to seminars over Northwest Russia to learn more about investigative journalism and how you can apply for a SCOOP grant.

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/01/22/invitation-to-scoop-seminars/feed/0Get Support for your Investigation in 2016http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/01/16/get-support-for-your-investigation-in-2016/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2016/01/16/get-support-for-your-investigation-in-2016/#commentsSat, 16 Jan 2016 04:33:23 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9451Do you have an idea for an investigative journalistic story, but no money to produce it? If you are a Russian journalist, you can apply for both funding and training for investigative journalism.

We – the International Media Support, IMS, in Copenhagen, the Associations of investigative journalism in Denmark and Sweden, FUJ and FGJ, in cooperation with the Regional Press Institute, RPI, in Saint Petersburg, Russia and Fojo Media Institute, Sweden – are happy to invite you to apply for support to an investigative journalism report you would like to conduct in your region. The investigation should be useful to your community and interesting to your audience. The work should be intended to be published in a mass media you regularly work for, such as print media, radio, television or web based media.

We offer you assistance to plan your investigation, to participate in a training program at Fojo Media Institute in Kalmar, Sweden, with Russian-speaking trainers, and a follow up master class seminar when your piece has been published. During the work you can get support from our experienced trainers in Russia. You can also apply for financial support for various costs during the work, such as travel or external analysis, and a small fee.

SCOOP Russia is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. This is the sixth year SCOOP Russia is running, and Sida is supporting the program until 2019.

The supported projects will also be published on the SCOOP Russia website. On the website you can see examples of previous investigations in Russian language as well as in English. If you have questions, you can find contact details on the web page.

Deadline for applications is February 15th. The application form shall be properly filled and sent by e-mail to info@scooprussia.org. SCOOP Russia is ready to support 16 applications from new journalists. In addition a number of reporters who have already received SCOOP training, can get support for a new investigation. Our selection period ends February 29th. The training period is tentatively planned for the end of March/beginning of April and will be held in Kalmar, Sweden.

We – the International Media Support, IMS, in Copenhagen, the Associations of investigative journalism in Denmark and Sweden, FUJ and FGJ, in cooperation with the Regional Press Institute, RPI, in Saint Petersburg, Russia and Fojo Media Institute, Sweden – are happy to announce that SCOOP Russia will announce a call for new applications after the winter holiday.

The project is financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA. The training program is held at Fojo in Kalmar, Sweden, by Russian speaking trainers.

Please take your time thinking about an investigation, that might be useful to your community and interesting to your audience, and get ready to apply.

The announcement for the call will be published on the SCOOP Russia website www.i-scoop.org in Mid-January.

And until we come back to you: Happy holidays and Happy New Year!

The SCOOP-Russia international staff

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/12/28/call-for-applications-coming-up/feed/0Prosecutor’s Office Confirms SCOOP Investigation’s Findingshttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/12/07/prosecutors-office-in-russia-confirms-scoop-investigations-findings/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/12/07/prosecutors-office-in-russia-confirms-scoop-investigations-findings/#commentsMon, 07 Dec 2015 09:23:37 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9271In March 2015, the journalist Roman Romanovskiy with support from SCOOP RUSSIA revealed the almost non-existing wastewater treatment in a number of facilities in Kaliningrad. The investigation was published in an article in the newspaper Dvornik and on the website rugrad.ru.

In April, Romanovskiy’s investigation was severely criticised by Maksim Fedoseyev, the Kaliningrad politician responsible for waste water treatment in the region. He even accused the Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta for defamation as the newspaper, among many other media, had made a news piece based on the investigation made by Roman Romanovskiy in Kaliningrad.

But soon the picture changed. In two of the four wastewater treatment facilities where the SCOOP Russia investigator found that the treatment didn’t work, the prosecutor offices made their own investigations.

Roman Romanovskiy wasn’t allowed to collect samples from indoor checkpoints. The prosecutor was. The results confirmed the overall picture from the newspaper investigation. Both in Polessk and Gusev the result was much worse than Russian law stipulates. In Gusev the municipal body responsible for the insufficient treatment, was fined 1,2 million rubles (approximately 17 000 €). In Bagrationovsk the wastewater treatment facility was closed until proving able to work properly.

Of the five facilities Roman Romanovskiy investigated, only one was functioning. The rest had so high levels of contamination that Roman Romanovsiky doubt that proper installations are made at all.

– I hope the prosecutor’s office will investigate what kind of installations there are in the buildings, Roman Romanovskiy says.

Gusev, one of the plants showing the worst pollutions, has received financial support with 3,5 million euros from the EU.

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/12/07/prosecutors-office-in-russia-confirms-scoop-investigations-findings/feed/0New Fellowship for Reporting on Lack of Energyhttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/11/10/new-fellowship-for-reporting-on-lack-of-energy/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/11/10/new-fellowship-for-reporting-on-lack-of-energy/#commentsTue, 10 Nov 2015 13:16:17 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9236Eight journalists from around the world can win a fellowship to report on energy deficit and its causes in their region. Behind the initiative is Discourse Media in Vancouver, Canada, which has launched the Access to Energy Journalism Fellowship (AEJF) — a project aimed at enabling critical, deep reporting on energy poverty globally.
The project aims to deepen energy poverty reporting at the local level. By then bringing those reports together on a global platform in the form of a multimedia series, it will also paint a global picture of the energy poverty landscape, and examine what potential solutions exist.
The AEJF is supported by the Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI), a non-profit partnership between the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the University of Waterloo. To respond to a gap in media discourse around the issue of energy access globally, Discourse Media created
the AEJF project concurrent with the leadup to WGSI’s OpenAccess Energy Summit, which takes place in April, 2016.

The call for applications for the AEJF are open until November 29, 2015. More information

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/11/10/new-fellowship-for-reporting-on-lack-of-energy/feed/0Journalists under Pressure can seek Refuge in Leipzighttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/11/10/journalists-under-pressure-can-seek-refuge-in-leipzig/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/11/10/journalists-under-pressure-can-seek-refuge-in-leipzig/#commentsTue, 10 Nov 2015 09:25:01 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9233The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) has launched a Journalists-in-Residence-Programme. It provides a sanctuary, a scholarship, health insurance and a workplace for journalists who are threatened in their home country or work under pressure.

Travel and visa-costs are covered by the program, as well as private health care, the accommodation and a monthly scholarship of 1000 Euro.

Journalists who want to attend the programme must follow certain criteria, e.g. having worked as an investigative journalist for at least five years and proving that they are under pressure. Furthermore they cannot be member of a political movement and must be able to return to their country to continue their work for press and media freedom at home, if appropriate.

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/11/10/journalists-under-pressure-can-seek-refuge-in-leipzig/feed/0Tajik Handbook of Good Investigationshttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/10/14/tajik-handbook-of-good-investigations/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/10/14/tajik-handbook-of-good-investigations/#commentsWed, 14 Oct 2015 10:14:20 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9215Journalists in Tajikistan now have a new source of inspiration for investigative journalism. 10 good investigations, supported by SCOOP, are collected in a new book with interviews with the reporters behind the stories and a theoretical chapter with tips and advice.

The initiative for the book is taken by former SCOOP coordinator, journalist Muhaiyo Nozimova, who was edited the book and selected the investigations. The picture shows Muhaiyo Nozimova presenting the book at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Lillehammer in October 2015.

The investigations in the book are translated to English as part of the SCOOP project.

“Unfortunately not the interviews, there wasn’t money for that,” tells Muhaiyo Nozimova. “But it is important to present our work to the world outside Tajikistan. We are a young country, and only after the SCOOP project did the journalists understand what investigative journalism really is. Many have attended courses, and one can see in the recent investigations that they have learned a lot.”

The theoretical chapter gives advice on planning and research in investigative journalism. In the interviews, the reporters tell of the problems they encountered, their methods, how they worked with sources and other advice.

The American embassy in Dushanbe has funded the printing of 300 copies of the book. The Tajik journalists are now looking into the possibility of publishing the texts online.

]]>http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/10/14/tajik-handbook-of-good-investigations/feed/0New Grants for Cross Border Investigationshttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/09/01/new-grants-for-cross-border-investigations/
http://i-scoop.org/scoop/blog/2015/09/01/new-grants-for-cross-border-investigations/#commentsTue, 01 Sep 2015 08:47:17 +0000Trine Smistruphttp://i-scoop.org/scoop/?p=9141Funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Berlin School of Journalism has launched a new program for cross border journalism: ‘Reporters in the Field’.